Posted on 01/30/2014 9:15:18 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A 77-year-old man died after collapsing across the street from a fire station, where his daughter had asked for immediate assistance and was instead rebuffed by a firefighter who told her he couldn’t help unless dispatch instructed him to intervene.
The man, Medric Cecil Mills, collapsed near the Engine 26 fire station in the Brookland area of Washington, D.C. at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. His daughter, Marie Mills, went to the station to beg for immediate medical assistance. But the firefighter she encountered there told her that she had to first call 911 so that dispatch could instruct him to assist the dying man, according to The Washington Post.
“I even ran to the curb and said, ‘Are you going to help me or are you going to let my dad die?’” recalled Marie Mills in a statement to ABC 7.
Aid came too late for Mills, who passed away at the hospital, one hour later.
It is unclear how much of a delay was caused by the firefighter’s inaction. The ambulance that eventually came for Mills was first dispatched to a wrong address, 26 blocks away.
Edward C. Smith, president of the firefighters union, apologized on behalf of the department. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has promised that there will be an investigation into the matter.
“When you go to a fire station, you should expect that someone there is going to help you,” said Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesperson for the mayor, in a statement. “This gentleman was not served. We need to answer why he was not served.”
Ribeiro added that Mills should have been helped by the fire department, “protocol be damned.”
When do you make the call?
I whispered in the drivers ear for what seemed like a very long time but was only seconds. I may have yelled to get her attention.
I don’t know. I do know this, I took to the responsive people when the others weren’t responsive.
What can I do?
Limit the death.
Seriously.
Through instinct, you did what’s actually the normal mass casualty drill these days: a quick eval to see if the patient has a chance, then move on to the next one if not.
If you’re ever involved in one of those incidents and find yourself on the black tarp, crawl over to the red one.
I still feel weird that I cut some of them loose as dead.
What can you do?
What can you do?
Your best.
And that’s what you did.
Amen.
Not around here.
Well...why didn’t someone just set the father’s pants on fire? Seems logical to me. Sarc. of course.
Here’s some enlightening info:
DC Democrats in action. Typical incompetence and not caring.
The Fire Department Chief is a complete asshole but he still has his job.
In fact, so do all the other assholes who ruin, er, run, D.C.
One exception - they can give a parking ticket faster than Superman could.
Just another day in the ‘hood.
If I'm reading the DC Fire Department locations right,the E26 station is on Rhode Island Avenue a few blocks east of the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station, and right on the border of Brookland and Brentwood. It's a bit of a sketchy area. The last time it surfaced on FR was in connection with a mugging on the bike trail along the railroad corridor, which would have been just a few blocks down the street. Sketchy, but not scary; I personally would not hesitate to walk or bike through it, at least along the main roads. There are side streets I wouldn't go down, just because I don't know the area well enough to know when I might be walking into a project that might be a bit more robust than I had bargained for.
FWIW, the area is clinically interesting. Capitol Hill, a mile or more to the south, is expanding in all directions. The development wave is now pushing north of New York and towards Rhode Island; the location of this incident is a couple of neighborhoods north, but it is near enough to be affected. Brookland, further to the north, is also steadily improving. In between is a blighted wedge dominated by the Rhode Island and New York Avenue traffic nightmares, compounded by the rail yards and tracks bisecting the area along both a north-south and east-west axis. It's been a mess for a long time, and the turnaround that is starting to take hold is a neat thing to watch.
The Brookland identification took me by surprise; most people think of Brookland as the area a little further north, adjacent to Catholic University, with a very solid neighborhood main street along the shopping district centered around 13th and Monroe. Rhode Island Avenue is the borderlands. Brookland is an up and coming neighborhood.
At least the fireman didn't say "Your dad is across the street, so you have to go to the Brentwood station." He's probably in trouble with the union for failing to point that out.
It has been a low process but the post office is now adjacent to DC's first two big box stores, a Giant supermarket and a Home Depot, which anchor a mid-size shopping center. This complex, which has been there enough years that it is no longer new, is bordered on Rhode Island Avenue to the north, just a few blocks from this incident at the fire station. To the south is New York Avenue and the railroad tracks, then Trinidad and Gallaudet University, with Capitol Hill just south of that.
This whole area is clawing its way back. When I drive through from time to time, I see demographically surprising people on the streets, many of whom will be telling people 20 years from now how they bought in a depressed area for X and are now real estate millionaires. I have a soft spot for urban pioneers, because I moved onto Capitol Hill when people thought I was crazy.
A few weeks ago during Christmas my four year old daughter fell and went unconscious and wasn’t breathing for a bit, came to went unconscious again, and my wife was losing her mind and I while on the phone with 911 was trying to make sure her airways were open, when an off duty firefighter ran over and helped out too. He had been watching his son play hockey.
Society isn’t over yet, we need to fire all the heartless people though.
My daughter is OK, I didn’t see the fall, but I figured she had fallen and winded herself really bad and couldn’t breath for a bit. On the way to hospital she had fully recovered before arriving by ambulance. Praise God.
I blame the lawyers.
I have no idea what you mean by that. Seriously.
If you collapse INSIDE my hospital we will help you.
If you collapse OUTSIDE on the sidewalk we are told
by administration to call 911. Aren’t ambulance chasing
shysters wonderful? Policies are written to prevent them
from getting involved, not for helping people.
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